Stuck in the doldrums...

So the adventures in Iceland are over (for now). I returned to Scotland at the start of September after an epic 5 months working in the remote east of Iceland and I am now trying to adjust to "normal" life.  I have had some amazing opportunities to work with some brilliant people and amazing wildlife and now I'm scoping out the next opportunity to either vanish into the wild or to try and inspire people to care about our wildlife and natural history.

After the wild beauty of Iceland it is strange being back in autumnal Scotland with the trees displaying a stunning variety of colours.  Some things never change and the majority of the weather in the last 2 months has been wet and windy. 

I am currently searching the career paths and looking for that next adventure.  The second I manage to find it I will start writing the next chapter of "Spirit of Adventure".

My new car!

Just a couple of photos of my new car. Not very useful for parking in Tesco, but Icelandic rivers, mountains and 4x4 tracks are no problem!! It also does not matter if I get a stone-chip to the windscreen and if I want to deter any potential car thieves I only have to go for the optional .50 cal machine gun!

Weather for the...er...chicks?!

Well the wind has changed direction, heavens have opened and the beautiful weather of the last couple of days are nothing but a vague memory.  We have had torrential rain since last night and the rivers have all become impassable again. Hopefully they will lower again before our volunteers are due to leave on Sunday!

So to pass some time in the nice warm (and dry!) centre I thought I would write about my latest discovery and add some more photographs to my blog.

I went to check the chicken house yesterday afternoon as I have done on many occasions.  Opening the door I was momentarily distracted by a skein of geese as I stepped forward. As my foot hit the ground however there was a little "cheep" where no little cheep has any place being as we start the downward slide towards another Icelandic winter.

After quickly checking their was nothing fluffy stuck to the underside of my boot I was comforted to hear another "cheep" from outside the door, followed by yet another "cheep" from a different location.  Quickly running around I eventually ended up with FIVE "cheeps" in a bucket.  It appears our rather randy rooster (Rupert!) has had his wicked way with one of our grey hens.  Rather than sitting in the hen house she had discovered a hidden place to nest and had managed to hatch five little chicks. After a quick health check all five "cheeps" were returned to mum, who led them off into the grass.

Chicks and more photos...

Two of our new chicks!

What a view!

Best place to relax!

My new idea for  "dealing with the laundry"

Sauðafell

For the past five months Izzy and I have looked out every morning (well those mornings where the cloud allowed us to look out!) across the reserve to the mountain of Sauðafell which stands 553m (or 1797 ft for those that still like the old money!)

Everyone who visits the reserve has to drive along the 4x4 track that runs around the bottom of Sauðafell with it´s rocky summit. It has been a constant part of the scenery here and we have been trying to find time to climb it since April! - Well on Saturday we eventually managed to find time, and luckily for  us beautiful weather, to climb the mountain with our faithful hound.

The view of Sauðafell from the 4x4 track

Izzy making her way up the mountain

Bjartur (right hand side) enjoying the view

Almost at the top

Great view

Izzy on the ridge

At the summit 

SEEDS Group 2 - Oli´s Angels

Today saw the departure of our second SEEDS group of volunteers. They have been with us for the last week and have filled the place with laughter and have lightened atmosphere in the centre as we come to the end of the season. It has been lovely having them and getting involved with all of their activities on and off the reserve.

Sunday will see the arrival of our last group from the John Muir Trust and also the last full week that Izzy and I have left at Skálanes before we return to the United Kingdom. Sometimes it seems that the time has flown and other times it seems like we have been here for a long time.  It has been an eventful summer and a very useful experience for both of us. Hopefully all of the groups that we have had through feel it has been a worthwhile experience for them as well.

So.....SEEDS Group 2 in photos...

Down...but not out!

It was always going to happen at some point and 19 weeks have now been and gone at Skálanes before I have become ill, although on the plus side I have outlasted everyone else. Now to head-off the comments about "Man-Flu" I do not have the flu! I might have a horrible cold or even a throat infection, but I do not have man-flu.

It has been busy at Skálanes with guests and day visitors, but the season is definately slowing down now. In three days our second Glasgow University group leaves and we then only have a SEEDS group and a group from John Muir Trust before Izzy and I follow the majority of bird species back south.

Lacking any great inspiration other than the four walls that I am currently confined in, I thought I would simply finish with a photograph of a 4x4 lorry that we parked next to the other day.  Now I know Izzy is on the shortish side (don't tell her I said that!) but the lorry is HUGE! If you're going to travel in Iceland then I guess it is worth travelling in style!!

Images from the reserve...

Some photographs from the reserve over the last couple of days...

Blue sky and Ice-cold water!

Looking up the Fjord

Snipe beside the centre

Pool below the dam

Chantal taking samples

Scary!

Harebells

Track down to Skálanes

Reading the signs...

Unfortunately everything starts to get a bit tired and worn out after a while, and I´m not just talking about myself. The main sign at Skálanes had seen better days, with two of the five panels falling apart.  So taking the original sign we have now recycled three of the panels and used them in three individual sign "cairns".

Many thanks to the Desire group for their work on the signs and especially Master Builder Colin and Apprentice Dylan!

Work in progress, but looking good...

New use for the old parking sign

Colin´s brilliant information cairn in the car park

"Build and they shall come!"

Amongst the long, green grass...

So now that summer has eventually found us and we have managed to get several days of consecutive sunshine, it appears that all the flowers on the reserve have decided it is probably worth a short demonstration of their beauty.

With this in mind we have been carrying out some basic vegetation surveys on the reserve to try and establish a base line that can then be further investigated by students with more botanical knowledge than we have.

Izzy and I have also managed a trip away again (at Oli´s insistence so that we do not "burn out") and have visited Husey a couple of hours drive north of Skálanes. Husey is an HI Youth Hostel set in the middle of the flood plain of one of the Icelandic glaciers. It is an amazing place with some beautiful wildlife. Seals, Great Skua, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern and more Red-throated Divers than you can shake a stick at!

Seal at Husey

Great Skua

Chantel & I looking at Insects

Izzy working on a vegetation transect

You gotta roll with it...

...you really should take your time...

Oops!

So today we had had five young Spanish guys in a Mitsubishi roll their 4x4 on a corner of our track. Just because you have a 4x4 you should not drive fast on loose gravel on a road you do not know!

We also encountered a French gentleman in a Suzuki Vitara who was driving too fast downhill and seemed a bit bemused when I would not drive into a ditch with a full trailer just so he could continue on his merry way. The appearance of a large Nissan Patrol in the middle of the track caused him to lose any common sense that he did possess as he reversed backwards up the road and off the side of the track onto a slope. He looked slightly sheepish as we passed, and looking into my wing-mirror I watched him wheel-spin the car in a particularly ineffective manner without moving very far.

Now I had two choices. I could have continued driving and left him there, however after 30 seconds of laughing at him Izzy and I got out and gave him some polite pointers that helped him get back on the road again. It probably did not help that the road tyres he had on his vehicle did not have much grip and that the French do not appear to understand the phrase "just give it a little power and go SLOW!"

Change of the Guard!

Well that is week 14 been and gone, and with it the first group of Glasgow University students.  In their place we received another 5 Glasgow Uni students and 5 students/volunteers on the EU funded Desire placement.  This is the placement that I was on in 2009 and that originally introduced me to Skálanes and Iceland.

So now there are 12 of us living at Skálanes, along with any guests, 4 pigs, chickens, ducks, the dog and the 4 cows who have been allowed out of Stalag Skálanes now that the tern colony has left.  Unfortunately despite producing both eggs and chicks it appears that the Tern colony has again failed to get any birds to the fledging stage. It looks like there is a lack of sand-eels and that the majority of chicks were not getting enough food. Unfortunately this is not something that we can manage. It may be that the colony is just too large now to be sustainable with the current food availability.  Over time it may fragment and a smaller colony may be able to produce fledglings and survive on the current population of sand-eels.

As well as the students we had 20 ish Portuguese motorcyclists for dinner and 11 of them staying over night. We also had another cruise group into the reserve, with a couple more still to visit us over the next couple of weeks.  This week is also the Lunga arts festival in town, with lots of workshops and events. We even had some art students at Skálanes painting a mural on one of our walls based on Icelandic runes. See what you think in the photos below:

Arts students and our runic mural

Work in progress

Runic mural

66°NORTH (plus a wee bit more!)

After working at Skalanes for over twelve weeks, Oli decided that it was about time we saw a bit more of Iceland and had a bit of a rest. So Izzy and myself, along with our friend Ross Watson (who is staying at Skalanes for two weeks), set off on a road trip to the north of Iceland.

Our trip took us from Seydisfjordur across the mountains to Egilsstadir and northwards on the Icelandic ring-road route 1.  Two hours driving brought us to a junction onto a dusty gravel track that would lead us towards the massive waterfall at Dettifoss and then to our campsite for the night at As.

The second day started in beautiful sunshine and we jumped in the pickup and drove almost as far north as we could get in Iceland. We were not very far from the Arctic circle and despite the sunshine the wind reminded us just how far north we really were. Back on the road we travelled west to the town of Husavik via the waterfall at Godafoss and set up camp for the night in the town. We spent the evening sampling the food in a restaurant in the town and wandering around the port before we stopped back at the campsite for our second night under canvas.

Day three saw us heading south west to Lake Myvatn where we visited the Bird Museum, pseudocraters, lava flows, the volcano at and finally the hot geothermal nature baths. The bird life (of the feathered kind) was just amazing around the lake with rednecked phalaropes, slavonian grebes and various species of ducks all living in this amazing landscape. We camped in a beautiful campsite down by the river and despite the first rain of the trip enjoyed a lovely meal at a local pub.

Day four started VERY windy as we headed back south down route 1 again, passing geothermal springs, the volcano at Krafla and lunching at Husey where we watched Icelandic horses, seals and a red throated diver.

An amazing couple of days in a beautiful and dramatic country. We all had a great time and I hope that some of the following photos give an idea of just how amazing it has been.

So, now back to work....

Our trusty pickup and the long road...

Mountain views from "Route 1"

Slightly scruffy looking male Snow Bunting in the Dettifoss carpark

Male Ptarmigan

Blue skies and fantastic views

Black-tailed Godwitt on the road behind the car!

Dunlin

Waterfall at Godafoss

Me / Izzy / Ross

As far north as we could drive and not far off the Arctic Circle!

Male & Female Slavonian Grebes at Myvatn

Red-throated Diver at Husay